Khan-hater

Khan being 'Pakistani and Muslim', obviously is not the idealistic combination to be a public aspirational Englishman. I think we can all agree on that one. That's not purely based on race it's just how it is.

Some of his hatred is based on his race, some is on his fundamental flaws such as his chin, and some on his overprotected but premature career.

There is one thing I don't really understand is when some of his Haters think of Khan as arrogant. He seems like a very level headed young man. Give the kid time.

 

I have been around him, and i can assure you he is very arrogant and up his own backside.

 

When talking about the hate that Amir Khan gets, first off you have to look at it from two different standpoints. One from the non-boxing fan and the other from the genuine boxing fan, like the people here, who follow the sport.

That's a huge difference. With Amir Khan the first thing you have to bear in mind is that the "general" public have had Amir in the spotlight since he was a young humble kid, doing the country proud in the Olympics. Everyone loved Amir Khan at this point and yes, people were comparing him to Naseem Hamed. They heard the muslim name, see a skinny little guy with fast hands and feet and they put 2+2 together but the difference with Khan was that he came across as humble.

After the Olympics the kid was already a huge star, he signs up with Warren. For the boxing fans this was a bit of turning point in itself, for the general public, they were just eager to see his first pro fights. Also bear in mind that this is post 9/11 and the media clamour to find a young muslim role model for the public eye.

Now, I'll state at this point that you are obviously going to have a contingent of racists who already hate him because "he's a paki", there is no denying that but it's not to the extent that some people seem to believe.

Back to his early pro fights ... the public are getting to see Khan destroy his early opponents, as he should, the boxing fans are aware that these guys are just first steps for a pro and not anything to base a fighters ability on at world level but the media is building him up as some kind of legend future ATG.

Now he's getting a few wins under his belt, we start seeing Khan get a bit more obnoxious, he's making a lot of easy money and stating some outlandish ****, "I want to be a world champion this year" & "I could beat Pacquiao right now" (yes he did say this) the knowledgable boxing fans are starting to get pissed off, he hasn't proved **** to no one, there's questions about the kids chin and then with the Limond fight, we get this confirmed when Khan has to get up off the canvas to come back and TKO Limond.

This is a turning point for Khan, many boxing fans are full against him now and stupid comments from Khan himself are pissing people off further. Sky run a commercial in the build up to one of his fights which compares him to Muhammed Ali, Michael Schumacher & Tiger Woods (**** you not) and to the boxing public he just looks like another gravy train Warren protected/managed fighter .. feeding off guys like a shot Gomez, who takes him to the brink yet again.

Next up, Frank Warren attempts to pull the wool over the publics eyes, all this talk about Khans chin will be put to rest when he squares up against an undefeated power puncher with something like a 90% KO ratio ... but the guy had been fighting milkmen and taxi drivers in Columbia.

Breidis Prescott sparks Khan out cold seconds into the 1st round. The boxing fans have been vindicated, proven right about Khan and the lads career is in tatters.

This is turning point nr 2 for Khan because in Britain, we don't like cocky overly confident sportsmen but we LOVE an underdog and now we have Amir Khan the Underdog. He packs up his **** and goes to train with Freddie Roach in LA. We get reports of him sparring with Pacman and people are starting to get behind him again.

He has an easy match up for his next fight, we can all forgive a fighter that but for the next bout he's put up against Marco Antonio Barrera, a legend, the guy who beat his predecessor. Khan remains humble throughout the build up and gains a lot of new fans. The way the fight panned out was a stumbling point for him though, the cut fiasco didn't sit well with people and then to top it off Khan goes and does his arrogant stupid bit after the fight, not acknowledging the importance of that cut and appearing to show disrespect to a legend.

Now we're two fights down the line, Khan has picked up a title against an average champ, beat down an over-rated chump (IMO), got rid off Warren (huge plus) and is now being matched against dangerous guys like Maidana & JMM.

So at this point, he's probably turned a lot of people back round to liking him. I think within another 2-3 wins if he is against good opponents, then there will be few UK haters to choose from.

I've missed a ton of **** out like the PPV fights against nobodies but to me that's the general jist of Amir Khan so far in Britian.

The minority of racist non-boxing fans still hate him and will always hate him but there's not much you can do about that.

 

The "Khan is cocky" reason for hating him, holds very little weight. His arrogance level is no where near the likes of Mayweather, Naz, Haye or Froch. He displays confidence and aspirations which is no different to any other young fighter looking to take on the world.

The lad recieves hate for a variety of reasons, with the above (as baseless as it is) included:

- Fame, success, and attention
- Early PPV attraction
- Guided by Frank Warren (although it was ok for Calzaghe and Hatton)
- Race
- Chin

 

Everyone wanted to see Naz KO'd for his arrogance, same goes for Mayweather .. even Floyd acknowledges this. Haye is cocky but he can say it with a twinkle in his eye and that makes all the difference in the world. Similar thing for Froch who is very dry witted so you never really believe that he's 100% genuine with what he says but lets face it, Froch is so much of a star in this country he can't even get a TV deal.

 

Good summary.

I don't think it would take much for the British public fall in love with Khan, a few fights against some highly rated opponents and they would be fully behind him.

What people don't like is the continued hype about someone who has done little in the sport so far, been knocked down by nobodies and seems to have his opponents cherry picked to avoid any big punchers.

 

Kahn also suffered from something of a back lash from the Audley Harrison fiasco. An amatuer boxer being paid serious money to fight easy fights (whilst running his mouth off like A-Force did) and be on live TV etc. Boxing fans don't like that ****. They feel conned, as do the general viweing public when they realise they are watching a load of bollox.

Personally the vivification of Frank Warren is ludicrous, he has protected fighters over the years but let's face it they needed the protection the vast majority of the time. He got Tszyu for Hatton and Calzaghe never wanted to fight in America, not his fault. He knows all about Khan and was trying to maximise the $$$$. Khan may well rue the day he threw it back back in Warren's face.

I like watching Khan though, he boxes sweetly and has that excitement factor of being potentially KO'd all the time! He's great for boxing.

 

Great summary Broxi.:good

I think real boxing fans were also pissed off that he jumped up a division and went for the paper world title bout against Kotelnik, without having gone through the traditional British (eg: Thaxton and Murray) and European (eg: Romanov) title route down at LW first.

The PPV thing, with all the over-the-top adverts, also turned a lot of people away from him.

 

Pretty much sums it up.
Still only 23.

 

Its quite simple

Kindelan didnt try an inch in the rematch
Fought blown up featherweights at lightweight
Avoided top 5 British lightweights like the plague
Avoided Romanov like the plague(Eurpean Title)
Beat Limond despite having a 12 count
Been floored by Craig Watson(amateur),Drillzane and a shot Gomez
Smashed to pieces by 1st genuine live lightweight opponent(Prescott)
Beats an Irish schoolteacher and hes the bees knees again
Gets a world title shot before Prescott
Makes comlplete song and dance about winning a world title then vacates it to avoid a puncher.

If he earns millions off the back of conning the public then good luck to him,but i for one cannot stand the hype that comes with this fraud or the mans arrogance.There is no doubting his offensive prowess but this guy would have lost 5 or 6 times by now if hed have gone the conventional route(British,Commonwealth,European).And as for the racist thing his career has been boosted from a marketing point of view in PC Britain because he is Asian.I remember one woman lambasting a punter in the pub during one of his early fights because he was shouting against Khan and she said that he should be supporting Khan because he is English.A valid standpoint except for the fact that the guy he was fighting was English also!Somebody trying a bit too hard to support an Asian boxer methinks!:roll:

 

Go **** yerself

 

See this is what i don't get, yes totally he has to select the right opponent at this age. Boxing is about match-ups......but look at his age and then compare that to Calzaghe and Hatton, he is fighting better opponents at the same age.

I mean its prob gonna be Maidana or JMM next we believe, how can he be a fraud. If so that makes Hatton and Calzaghe the biggest frauds ever. And making millions, who cares......i wish him the best. Every prem football earns millions and most of them are prats who go clubbing all the time and don't give a **** about the fans. Hope that puts things in perspective.

 

He has had a way easier time of it than any boxer in history.Picking and choosing opponents is what is wrong with the sport and yes they all do it.But in Khan Warren has mangaged to excel himself more than ever before and for me he represents a low ebb for the noble art.

 

As i goes he is far ahead of Hatton-Calzaghe at this present moment in time. So i respectfully disagree.